Up in arms: USC's Matt Leinart

LOS ANGELES - His feet are firmly planted when he delivers the pass toward the UCLA defense, and the plastic bottle cap perfectly strikes its target on the meeting room big screen.

Holiday hams for USC's coaches line one wall, but the biggest ham in the room has his socks-clad feet on the table and a huge grin on his face, perhaps because of the latest play added to the game plan or maybe just because he genuinely is happy and relaxed.

The tousled hair and scruffy beard are similar, but this isn't the same Matt Leinart who hasn't lost a game in more than two years but lost the fun early in his season-long spotlight dance with destiny.

And it certainly doesn't look like the Leinart who was thoroughly confused at the end of last season by everything but what he did on the field for the Trojans.

This one knows he has only two games left in perhaps the most magnificent career any college quarterback has enjoyed, and he plans to enjoy every moment he has left.

"There's no better way to finish up than at home, against UCLA," said Leinart, who will lead the No.1 Trojans against the No.11 Bruins on Saturday at the Coliseum with a chance to clinch a spot in the Rose Bowl. "It's your intracity rivalry. It's my last game, and I get to finish at home in front of my fans, kind of give them one last show before I move on.

"And it helps so much that my head's a lot clearer than it was last year. I'm feeling so much better about things."

Leinart finished last season unsure of much, not knowing if his game against Notre Dame would be his finale in the Coliseum or if his meeting with UCLA would be his final college appearance in Southern California.

He constantly said he planned to return to USC for his senior season, but that often was simply his stump response to fend off questions. Leinart, however, began to question himself and said he spent a chunk of USC's Orange Bowl victory over Oklahoma wondering if he should leave for the NFL.

"I hadn't been talking to people, and I didn't know the money involved," he said. "Then, during the game, I'm thinking, 'Wow, I'm making this hard on myself with this type of game.'

"It weighed on my mind the whole Orange Bowl when I was thinking there was no better way of leaving than to go out on top like that. But this year is different. I know this is my last chapter no matter what happens at the Coliseum. I'm going to try to cherish every moment."

"I think this is really special for Matt," Trojans assistant head coach Steve Sarkisian said. "This game, knowing that it's his last one at home, has him really excited."

That excitement was hard to find for a while when Leinart lost any remaining naivete and sensed that he no longer was in position to act like a carefree kid, which was one of the things that drew him back for his senior season.

"You could just tell how much it was all weighing on him," said Leinart's father, Bob. "He was struggling with it for a while."

Leinart's return was accompanied by extraordinary expectations and the spotlight reserved for A-list celebrities. It meant his time between the Orange Bowl and, possibly, the Rose Bowl would be spent in a fishbowl.

"This year there's been all this talk about Heisman this or three-peat this," said Leinart, who won last season's Heisman Trophy and is in the running for this season's. "It's harder to have fun. It's harder to do anything without someone watching everything you do and every step you take. And that's really how it is. I feel like someone's watching everything I do."

Then again, that's what life could be like in the NFL when some team selects him among the first few picks in April's draft and makes an eight-figure investment in Leinart. So his rather public existence is among the things he learned to handle this season, along with the pressure of a two-minute drive at Notre Dame and taking every team's best shot.

Sure, life would have been simpler this season without the attention that comes from winning national championships and the Heisman, but Leinart seems gratified that he found a way to thrive in a situation no one before has experienced and still manage to have some of the fun he wanted.

"Just being here, not having to worry about being in another place, not having a lot of responsibility, just still being in college, this is what I wanted," he said. "Even if there's more attention than there was last year and with some of the other things that have gone on, I still would rather be here.